The King Of Warriors novel (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 6592

Jared looked at Cedric.

There was nothing in Cedric's eyes except naked hunger for the treasure before him. No caution. No hesitation.

He didn't know those were sacrificial sigils.

Or he did know, and simply didn't care.

"Master Blackwell," Jared said, "do you know what kind of sigils are carved into this altar?"

Cedric froze for a beat, then shook his head.

"I don't know much about elder runes. Do you, Mr. Chance?"

"They're sacrificial sigils," Jared said, his voice level. "That sword was offered up as a sacrifice to some being. If you remove it, that being will wake."

Cedric's expression changed.

He stepped up to the altar and studied the sigils one by one, a trace of gravity passing through his red-gold eyes.

He stood there in silence for a moment.

Then he smiled.

"You're overthinking this, Mr. Chance."

His voice stayed calm, but there was something unreadable under it. "The Ancient Battlefield has been here for who knows how many tens of thousands of years. Even if some being once existed here, it should have died long ago.

"And if it hasn't, then it's definitely asleep. We're only taking a sword. The disturbance won't be that great. It won't wake it."

Jared held his gaze.

There was no guilt in those red-gold eyes. No evasion. Only that same relentless fixation on the treasure.

But Jared knew Cedric was lying.

He knew exactly what those sacrificial sigils were, and he knew pulling the sword free would wake something.

He just didn't care.

Because the sword had never been his real goal.

Waking that being was.

Jared didn't know why Cedric wanted that.

But he knew Cedric was playing a much bigger game than he'd shown.

And Jared was the most important piece on the board.

"If you want the sword, Master Blackwell, then take it."

Jared backed up several steps and leaned against one of the stone pillars, arms folded across his chest.

His violet eyes stayed on Cedric. "But I'm not touching it."

Cedric's face tightened for an instant, then smoothed back into calm.

"If Mr. Chance won't do it, then I'll do it myself."

He walked to the altar and reached into the duskgold radiance.

The light curled around his fingertips.

Duskgold sigils raced up his arm, as if something were trying to force its way into his body.

Cedric gritted his teeth and drove his spiritual power into motion, forcing the sigils back.

His hand closed around the sword hilt.

Then he ripped it free.

The duskgold blade tore out of the radiance with a clear sword-cry.

The sound rang through the cave and made everyone's eardrums go numb.

The duskgold glow on the blade exploded outward at once, turning into ring after ring of shockwaves.

Loose stone blasted through the cave in every direction.

Cedric stood there with Gloamdeep in his hand, and a flash of savage exultation lit his red-gold eyes.

"What a blade. What an incredible blade."

The words had barely left his mouth when the cave began to shake violently.

The luminous crystals embedded in the ceiling tore loose one after another, slammed into the ground, and shattered into powder.

Great cracks split open across the ground.

Black smoke poured out of them, thick with the stench of rot.

At the same time, every sacrificial sigil on the altar blazed to life, and dark-red radiance drowned the entire cave in blood-colored light.

The sigils spun in a frenzy, as if they were sending a message to something waiting beyond them.

Then a voice rolled through the cave.

It was faint.

Far away.

It seemed to rise from the deepest reaches underground, and at the same time from some other stretch of time and space.

There was no emotion in it at all.

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